Wouldn’t it be great if we could all achieve what highly successful people have achieved? What have they done to get to where they are? Is it possible that we can emulate the habits of Power People?
In a podcast with Mike Kim, Jeff Brown identified four commonalities among Power People.
1. Dancing with discomfort
Uh-oh. Most of us would rather not think about this.
I’m fully convinced that humans are hardwired to stay in their comfort zone. As far as I can see, the only thing that differs from one person to another is the degree to which they wish to stay there.
If you find yourself in that boat, consider reading Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works or Feel the Fear . . . and Do It Anyway.
2. Ritualizing reading
Truth be told, most of us don’t set aside time to read. We wait until we “have time.” (And when, exactly, will that be?)
But just saying, “Oh, I’m gonna read this sometime” isn’t a ritual.
The consistent, deliberate reading habits of Power People have fueled their success. That means scheduling it, just as if it were a meeting.
3. Examining daily energy
I heard this phase and wondered … how, exactly, do I examine my energy?
An article by Darius Foroux explained that it involves asking ourselves these questions each day:
- “What activities destroy my mood and drain my energy?”
- “What activities make me feel good and give energy?”
Brown, however, takes it a step further. He urges us to classify such activities as green, orange, or red. I inferred that he meant literally writing these in color in our planners.
Since I’d like to emulate the habits of Power People, I did a little analysis of my own planner.
I got out my markers. I color-coded the activities and then realized … OH! There’s a bunch of red, plenty of orange, and relatively little green.
Maybe I need more activities that make me feel good and give me energy.
Maybe this would be a good time for me to revisit the principles in Soar with Your Strengths.
4. Mastering the morning
Yikes. For years, I’ve heard about this morning routine. I even read Hal Elrod’s book, The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8AM), because everyone told me how great it was. I just couldn’t buy into it.
More recently, though, I’ve begun to see the value of taking some time in the morning to get my own head on straight.
As the old saying goes, “you can’t pour from an empty cup.”
Starting my day with a little self-care sets the tone for the remainder of my day.
Here are the sources I use on a regular basis
- The Full Focus Journal™ (expensive, but worth it)
- The Pray As You Go app (Less than 10 minutes, never preach-y, but poses some tough questions)
- Flowly, a new biofeedback app designed to help you to regulate your sympathetic nervous system
- Pranayama, a fabulous 21st century app based on ancient techniques that work. There are both free and paid versions.
Motivation is what gets us started. But habit is what keeps us going.
I’d wager that we’d all be more successful if we could consistently emulate these habits of Power People.
Which habits of Power People have you tried?